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TKe Discovery of 
tKe Valley of Vir- 
ginia by Governor 
Spotswood j& j& j& & 







A I.K.N A N I >KK SP( )TSW( )< )I ). 
< .1 (\ l kmiK OF VIRGIN] A i ! 



The Discovery of the Valley of Virginia 
by Governor Spotswood. 



AN ADDRESS 

Delivered before The Society of Mayflower Descendants in the 

State of Ohio, at Cincinnati, on Compact Day, 

November 21, 1903. 



BY 

NATHANIEL PENDLETON DANDRIDGE. 




Press of The Robert Clarke Company, 
cincinnati. 



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The Discovery of the Valley of Virginia 
by Governor Spotswood. 



Mr. Governor, Members of the Society of Mayflower 

Descendants, in the State of Ohio: 
Ladies and Gentlemen : — 

When I began to appreciate that I had committed 
myself in response to the very gracious invitation to 
make an address before the Mayflower Society, I must 
confess that I found myself in a state of grave per- 
turbation. 

What theme could I select which would be worthy 
of the grim virtues of your great ancestors? What 
song of praise could I sing that had not been sung 
before? What story could I tell which was not a 
"thrice told tale"? 

And as I pondered, my confusion was not dimin- 
ished as I thought of the trials and dangers and famines 
of that first awful winter. 

I seemed to hear the exultant shouts of cruel red 
men, and my heart was rent with the piercing screams 
of their writhing victims; and then anon there came a 
whiff of scorching flesh as the flames lapped round the 
limbs of burning witches, and my ear grew dull and 
my eyelids drooped as I listened to dialectic sermons 
of intolerable length. This indecision was followed 
by " confusion worse confounded " when meeting by 



(4) 

chance a valued friend, whose ancestors had come 
across the ocean in the Mayflower, and generation 
after generation had spent their lives on the very shores 
hallowed by the footsteps of the Pilgrim Fathers. 

He told me of his summer pilgrimage, the " Home- 
coming week " in New England at the old home of his 
father, and of his own childhood, which, he said with 
evident pride and satisfaction, was in the very neigh- 
borhood — and as he paused I bent my ear to catch 
some echo of the sacred past — "near," he said, "where 
Cleveland has his summer home." 

"Ye gods and little fishes!" have the lengthening 
shadows so obscured the fires that burned on the old 
hearthstone that the shores almost within sound of the 
surf breaking on Plymouth Rock, and the sands that 
once felt the imprint of Miles Standish's foot, and where 
the lapping waves rippled their approval at the plight- 
ing of the troth of John Alden and Priscilla — are these 
shores, hallowed by so many sacred memories, now 
most notable in the eyes of Mayflower descendants as 
the summer home of the only living ex-President! 

Among such perturbing influences I sat me down to 
my task, and I trust you will not take it amiss if you 
find yourselves far afield as we meander together down 
one of the by-paths of history, which will lead us from 
Robert the Bruce, to Breathitt County, Kentucky, pass- 
ing on our way through the September haze in the 
valley of Virginia, and feeling at last the " vapory 
breath of the east wind " that once bent the sails of the 
Mayflower, and finding ourselves on the very waters 
which were furrowed by her keel. On this long and 
somewhat sinuous way we will excommunicate a 
bishop, and behead a judge, but will encounter no 



(5) 

greater danger than comes from the popping of many 
corks and some clouds of tobacco smoke. You may 
catch the flavor of good hot corn pone, but will not 
have dyspepsia from baked beans or pumpkin pie. 

On the 26th of August, 17 16, there came together 
at Germanna, on the Rapidan, a notable company of 
Virginian gentlemen. They had met at the invitation 
of Governor Spotswood to explore the Blue Ridge, to 
find, if possible, a passage through the great mountains, 
which had been until then inaccessible, and which were 
deemed impassable. This expedition, embellished as it 
has been by romance and tradition, forms one of the 
romantic incidents of Colonial Virginia. 

On the return of the party there was instituted the 
Tramontane Order, or " Knights of the Golden Horse 
Shoe." The emblem of the Order was a golden horse- 
shoe, to record the fact that the horses on this expe- 
dition were shod with iron shoes, which were quite 
unnecessary in the sandy soil of the Tide-water coun- 
ties, but which were deemed essential for the stony 
passages of the mountains. 

The motto adopted was, "Sic juvat transcendere 
monies." 

Those only were to be eligible to this Order of 
Knighthood in the future who could prove that they 
had drunk the health of George the First, the then 
King of England, on the top of Mount George, which 
marked the furthermost point reached by the expedi- 
tion, and which, like loyal subjects, they had named for 
their sovereign. The company of which we are now 
speaking all performed this act of fealty, and had shown 
equal loyalty to other members of the royal family by 
drinking their individual healths in different kinds of 



(6) 

wine. For this very proper evidence of their devotion 
on the part of this most loyal colony they had come 
well prepared. For the ancient chronicler tells us, in 
describing the meeting at Germanna, that " the whole 
company was about fifty persons. They had a large 
number of riding and pack horses, an abundant supply 
of provisions, and an extraordinary variety of liquors" — 
they were true Virginia gentlemen. The central figure 
of this group was a man of striking presence, and had 
already played a conspicuous part in the affairs of the 
world. He was known to both court and camp in the 
old country, and had ridden by the side of John 
Churchill in the overthrow of the French on the fate- 
ful day at Blenheim, and had again played his part in 
the wars of the Low Countries in the campaign of 
Ramillies, Malplaquet and Oudenarde, an experience 
which had left its mark, for the good Governor later, 
in his many contentions with his not too complacent 
House of Burgess, showed that he had not forgotten his 
early training, and " swore like our army in Flanders." 
Alexander Spotswood was of distinguished Scottish 
ancestry. The Spottiswoode of Spottiswoode were con- 
spicuous in the annals of Berwickshire in the days of 
Robert the Bruce. John Spotswood. in direct descent, 
the son of a noted divine, became a still more distin- 
guished churchman. First, Archbishop of Glasgow, he 
became in 1655 Primate of Scotland and Archbishop of 
St. Andrew's, and here (in addition to his care for the 
spiritual welfare of his people), doubtless as all good 
Christians should, took an interest in " ye ancient game 
of golf," and could, if occasion should require, even "lay 
a stymie in a struggling brother's way." Too great 
fidelity to his church and her liturgy led to his depo- 



(7) 

sition by the Glasgow Assembly. He was "charged 
with profaning the Sabbath, carding and dicing, riding 
through the country the whole day, tippling and drink- 
ing in taverns till midnight, falsifying the acts of the 
Aberdeen Assembly, lying and slandering the old As- 
sembly and covenant in his wicked book, adultery, 
incest, sacrilege and frequent simony. He was de- 
posed and decreed to be excommunicated." Allega- 
tions which, if sustained, would certainly show conduct 
not quite commendable in a bishop, and all of which 
may be characterized as " important, if true." It is 
pleasant, however, to read that the historian himself 
was in a doubting frame of mind, for he adds: " In the 
excitement of the period there was little delicacy shown 
in accusing an opponent." In spite of the decree made 
by Kirke and Synod, he was deemed worthy, on his 
death, of a place in Westminster Abbey, and he there 
lies buried. 

Robert Spotswood, second son of the Archbishop, 
was " eminent as lawyer and judge." Author of " The 
Practricks of the Law of Scotland." He recovered 
while at Rome " The Black Book of Paisley." He 
proved no more acceptable to the Scots than his 
father. He was made Secretary of State of Scotland 
by Charles the First, and carried the commission of 
Captain-General to Montrose, and was with him until 
his defeat at Phillipaugh, after which he was found 
guilty of high treason, namely, that he had " advised, 
docqueted, signed, carried and delivered to Montrose 
the commission appointing him Captain-General and 
Lieutenant-Governor of Scotland." His execution was 
most strenuously opposed, for " though many liked not 
his party, they liked his person." Still he was beheaded 



(8) 

at St. Andrew's, January 16, 1646, "the maiden being 
brought from Dundee for the purpose." 

The day before his death he wrote to Montrose, 
encouraging him " by fair and gentle carriage to gain 
the people's affection to their princes rather than imi- 
tate the barbarous inhumanity of their adversaries.'' 
This execution was the act of Scotch Puritans, but as 
there was constant going to and fro across the border 
to meet the frequent changes in the moral and religious 
atmosphere, it is not impossible that some of your ances- 
tors may have been engaged in showing this marked 
personal attention to one of mine. 

His grand-son, Alexander Spotswood, was born in 
Tangiers in 1676. He was literally brought up in the 
camp, and at the age of twenty-eight had reached the 
rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and was Quartermaster- 
General to Her Majesty's forces in Flanders. In 1710 
he came to Virginia as Deputy Governor under Lord 
Orkney, and brought with him the right of Habeas 
Corpus. His portrait " in the State library in Rich- 
mond represents him in full dress, scarlet velvet, grace- 
ful and commanding in face and figure, antique type of 
the cavalier." In Virginia his energy and organizing 
ability stimulated development in all directions. He 
first conceived the idea of making tobacco notes a cir- 
culating medium. And here I may remind you, for 
the benefit of those who are disposed to sneer at a State 
dependent upon a single staple, and that, too, one which 
caters to self-indulgence merely, and who are always 
prating about the connection of nicotine, cigarettes and 
paresis, that a learned writer has remarked — and the 
remark is quoted with approval by John Fiske — that a 



(9) 

" true history of tobacco would be the history of English 
and American liberty." (Moncure Conway.) 

Governor Spotswood brought Germans into the 
country for the cultivation of grapes and the making 
of wine, and established at Germanna the first iron fur- 
nace on this continent, and thus had a monopoly in the 
manufacture of iron. He was, therefore the real father 
of the Steel Trust. His purpose in setting on foot the 
expedition across the mountains, which was so gaily 
carried out to the music of popping corks, was by no 
means a frivolous one. In one of his letters to the 
" Lords Commissioners of Trade " he says: " The chief 
aim of my expedition over the great mountains in 1716 
was to satisfye myself whether it was practicable to come 
at the Lakes. Having on that occasion found an easy 
passage over that great Ridge of mountains which were 
before judged impassable, I also discovered, by the rela- 
tions of Indians who frequent those parts, that from 
the pass where I was at it is but three days' march to a 
great nation of Indians living on a river that discharges 
itself into Lake Erie. That from the western side of 
one of the small mountains which I saw that the Lake 
is very visible." 

It is to be remembered that, while the English had 
in all their settlements confined themselves to a narrow 
strip along the seacoast, and had penetrated inland but 
little beyond tide-water, the French, under their great 
chivalric and devout leaders, LaSalle, Pere Marquette, 
Frontenac and many others, had passed up the Great 
Lakes to the Sault Ste. Marie, and had descended the 
Illinois River and the Mississippi, and already at this 
time, 1 7 16, they had founded Kaskaskia, Cahokin, 
Detroit, Mobile and Vincennes, and two years later 



(10) 

Bienville founded New Orleans. (Fiske.) The Eng- 
lish settlements were thus completely surrounded. Gov- 
ernor Spotswood goes on to say that the purpose of 
his late expedition across the Blue Ridge was " to ascer- 
tain whether Lake Erie, occupying as it does a central 
position in the French line of communication between 
Canada and Louisiana, was accessible from Virginia." 
As a result of the present expedition he proposed to the 
authorities in England that he should be authorized to 
lead an expedition to determine whether or not it was 
feasible to found an English post on the lakes, and thus 
" drive a wedge between the extremities of the French 
position." To accompany him on the expedition he had 
invited a number of representative gentlemen. There 
was John Fontaine, ensign in the English army, from 
whose journal we shall quote; Robert Beverly, of Mid- 
dlesex, the historian; Colonel Robertson. Dr. Robin- 
son, Taylor, Todd, Mason, Captain Clouder, Smith, and 
Brooke. Besides these, as escort and guide, the party 
consisted of four Indians and two companies of rangers. 
The place of meeting was Germanna, on the Rapidan, 
named for the Germans who had been brought over to 
plant vineyards, and was also the seat of the first iron 
furnace, and later of the Governor's palace. This place 
will live in history, for here were enacted some of the 
bloodiest scenes of the war. For if the trumpet which 
so gaily sounded to horse on that August morning, 
1 716, could have carried down the ages, it would have 
been answered back by the tramp of marching thou- 
sands; as Grant's army, a century and a half later, passed 
through this same Germanna ford, plunged into the 
Wilderness, there to begin that series of disastrous 
battles when skill and strategy baffled overwhelming 



•* 



(II) 

numbers and obstinate and dogged determination, until 
the murderous din sank into silence on the wooded 
hillsides of Appomattox. 

Our party were a self-respecting lot of men, who 
fully appreciated the fact that Virginia gentlemen, with 
a proper regard for their own dignity, should not be 
expected to forego their usual social habits, even in the 
presence of danger from savage nature or still more 
savage red men. Among their supplies we are told 
they had brought " several casks of Virginia wine, red 
and white, Irish Usqubaugh, brandy, stout, two kinds of 
rum, champagne, cherry punch, cider, et cetera." For 
the et cetera their historian naively asks, " In heaven's 
name, what else could there have been?" 

The record of their journey is taken from Fontaine's 
journal: 

"August 27th — Set our tent in order and had our 
horses shod. 

"August 29th — In the morning we got things in 
readiness, and about 1 we left Germantown. At 5 in 
the afternoon the Governor gave the order to encamp 
near a small stream. We made great fires, supped and 
drank good punch. By 10 of the clock I had taken all 
of my ounce of Jesuit bark, but my head was much 
out of order." Query: Was it the punch, malaria or 
quinine? 

" 30th — In the morning, about 7 of the clock, the 
trumpet sounded to awaken all the company, and we 
got up. One Austin Smith, one of the gentlemen with 
us, having a fever, returned home. We had lain on the 
ground under cover of our tents, and we found by the 
pains in our bones that we had not had good beds to 
He on. 



(12) 

"At 9 in the morning we sent our servants and bag- 
gage forward and we remained, because two of the 
Governor's horses had strayed. 

"At half-past 2 we got the horses, at 3 we mounted, 
and at half an hour after 4 we came up with our bag- 
gage at a small river, three miles away, which we call 
Mine River, because there was an appearance of a silver 
mine in it." [It was on this same Mine River that Lee 
baffled Meade in an attempted attack some weeks after 
the battle of Gettysburg.] " We had good pasturage 
for our horses, and venison in abundance for ourselves, 
which we roasted before the fire on wooden forks, and 
so went to bed in our tents." 

31st — They shot bear and deer, and after making 
fourteen miles, " encamped upon the Rappahannock 
River. We made large fires, pitched our tents, and 
cut boughs to lie upon. Had good liquor, and at 10 
we went to sleep. We always kept a sentry at the 
Governor's tent. 

" September 1st — Saw the largest timber, the finest 
and deepest mold and the best grass that I ever did see. 
We had some of our baggage put out of order and our 
company dismounted by hornets stinging the horses. 
This was some hindrance and did a little damage, but 
afforded a great deal of diversion. We killed three 
bear this day to exercise the horses. 

" September 2d — We had a rugged way; we passed 
over a great many small rivers, some of which were very 
deep and some miry. We saw a small bear running 
down a tree, but it being Sunday, we did not endeavor 
to kill anything." This observance of Sunday is worthy 
of a New England conscience. 

" 3d — Came to a thicket so tightly laced together 



(13) 

that we had a great deal of trouble in getting through. 
Our baggage was injured, our clothes torn all to rags, 
and the saddles and holsters also torn. At 5 we en- 
camped just below the great mountain." 

Some of the men now became sick with the measles 
and one of the horses was bitten by a rattlesnake, and 
so they left a guard with their heavy baggage in camp, 
which they called Rattlesnake Camp, for the huge rattler 
they roused by their fire. The following day they fol- 
lowed the windings of the James, killed rattlesnakes on 
the way up, and reached the top of the mountain at 1, 
at a spring from which the river flows. A subsequent 
writer lets loose a true southern imagination and fancy 
in describing the scene which was now opened up 
(Wayland, Virginia Magazine): 

"At 1 Governor Spotswood reached the brow of a 
declivity at the top of the mountain, and the whole 
glorious prospect burst at once upon his enraptured 
sight. For some moments, as the other members of 
our party came up, not a word or a sound broke the 
silence of the awe-inspiring scene; then two score of 
vigorous voices shouted in exultant chorus, and the 
blaring of trumpets woke the echoes of the surrounding 
hills and vales. The broad valley spread out before 
them; miles of tall grass gently waved and shimmered 
in the September sun. Huge patches of forests, whose 
foliage was just beginning to take on the mellow hues 
of autumn, lent beauty and variety to the scene; the 
Shenandoah River, called by the red men ' Daughter of 
the Stars,' wound in and out among the groves and 
grassy meadows like a broad thread of silver in a giant's 
cloth of green and gold, and off yonder, a dozen miles 
to the north, the bold extremity of the Massanutton 



CM) 

Mountains came jutting ' out into the valley like some 
rugged headland in a quiet sea.' ' 

To return to Fontaine's journal: " We drank King 
George's health, and that of all the Royal Family, at the 
very top of the Appalachian Mountains." About a mus- 
ket shot from the spring mentioned there is another, 
which runs down the other way. 

" It goes westward, and we thought we would go 
down that way, but met such prodigious precipices that 
we had fo return to the top." They finally found an 
Indian trail, and descended safely, finding wild cucum- 
bers, currants and grapes. They now reached the Shen- 
andoah and named it the Euphrates, which has called 
forth from Fiske a cry of holy horror at the vicious taste 
displayed, and he expresses his gratitude that the old 
Indian name, Shenandoah, the Daughter of the Stars, 
has been preserved. 

September 6th — They crossed the river and drank 
healths on the other side. They re-crossed, killed 
turkey, and deer, and caught some fish. Fontaine 
" graved his name on a tree by the river side, and the 
Governor buried a bottle (by this time they must have 
had a good many empty ones) with a paper inclosed, 
on which " he writ he took possession of this place in 
the name and for King George First of England." 

" We had a good dinner, and after it we got the 
men together and loaded all their arms; and we drank 
the King's health in champagne and fired a volley; the 
Princess' health in Burgundy and fired a volley, and all 
the rest of the Royal Family in claret, and a volley. We 
drank the Governor's health and fired another volley. 
We called the highest mountain Mount George, and 
the one we crossed over Mount Spotswood." It is evi- 



/ 



(15) 

dent from the report of this day's doings that jugs and 
bottles and casks were not considered heavy baggage, 
and were not left behind in camp. 

After their return home the Order of Tramontaine, 
or the " Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe," was 
formed, and a gold horse shoe, probably in the form 
of a watch charm, was presented to each one by the 
Gpvernor, who subsequently complained that the Brit- 
ish government were too penurious to pay for them. 
So far as known, none of these emblems are now in 
existence. For the future, admission to this Order 
could only be obtained by those who could prove that 
they had drank the health of the King on the top of 
Mount George. History is silent on the point as to 
whether any one ever established a claim to admission. 

The two peaks which mark the farthermost point of 
this jolly jaunt can not at present be identified, though 
the general course through Swift's Gap into the valley 
at Port Republic, eighty miles below Winchester, has 
been pretty well determined. The return was without 
any special event. The very last entry into the journal 
records that they " arrived at a large spring, which they 
named Fontaine Spring, and then drank a bowl of 
punch." 

It is a comfort to think that these loyal and cheerful 
souls had still wherewith to quench their consuming 
thirst. 

Two hours later, at 4 o'clock, September 15th, they 
were back at Germanna. The philosophical historian 
who analyzes the succession of events must note one 
deficiency in these records, which marks indeed a 
decided gap. 

This party of chivalric gentlemen had indeed found 



(i6) 

themselves in a land of generous plenty. They had 
feasted on bear meat and venison and wild turkey. 
They had found growing wild cucumbers and currants 
and luscious grapes, and had the generous liquor where- 
withal to make the feast complete. One thing alone 
seems wanting, in the light of future experience. No 
mention is made, as they meander with many a merry 
quip and joke through the rich river valleys, of their 
having come across a bed of fragrant mint, and yet it 
is just in their track that it grows at present in the 
greatest profusion. Could they have made the fortu- 
nate discovery and conceived of that subtle combina- 
tion of sugar, brandy and a sprig of mint, their highly 
cultivated sense of taste would undoubtedly have most 
heartily approved of it, and doubtless their historian 
would have sung its praises, for surely the mint julep 
has been the delight and also the downfall of many a 
Virginia gentleman since. 

We may now ask, in the light of future history, what 
was the practical outcome and effect of the discovery of 
the valley of the Shenandoah, and the fact which it 
established, that the mountains did not present any very 
considerable obstacle to the entrance to it from the tide- 
water counties of Virginia? 

The valley of Virginia was not, in fact, populated 
from her olden settlements and by her own people, but 
its early settlers came from an entirely different and in 
many respects an antagonistic stock. First a few Ger- 
mans dribbled in from the North, the overflow of the 
Pennsylvania Dutch. Then came that great Scotch- 
Irish emigration, which equaled in importance, and 
actually outnumbered, the Puritan and Cavalier emi- 
gration of earlier times. It first came into Pennsyl- 



(17) 

vania and flowed over into the valley, and the strong 
character and rugged virtues of its members made 
Virginia largely Presbyterian. 

It may be well for us to pause for a moment to con- 
sider the origin of the Scotch-Irish emigration, " the 
pioneers of the American backwoods." In 1611 James 
the First began to people Ulster with a Protestant 
population from Scotland and the north of England. 
They were of course all Presbyterians. The colony 
grew, became cultured, prosperous and rich by the 
establishment of linen and woolen manufactories, which 
are even now famous throughout the world. " The 
antipathy of the Scotch-Irish as a group and the true 
Irish is perhaps unsurpassed for bitterness and inten- 
sity " — a bitterness which has by no means yet passed 
away, and an echo of which we have heard even in this 
community, for when a Mullen, a few years ago, was 
asked to support a Morrison, he swore by the Mother 
of God and all the Saints he would let him go hang 
first, for, said he, with deep feeling, the Morrisons 
fought against the Mullens in the battle of the Boyne. 
This animosity did not, however, prevent altogether the 
bright, quick-witted Irish lads from finding favor in the 
eyes of the Scotch lassies, with the usual change in their 
religion, for, as Fiske has pointed out, it is not unusual 
to find MacGinnises, McManuses and Murphys of the 
Presbyterian faith. English tariff laws closed the linen 
and woolen factories, and drove thousands of the unem- 
ployed across the ocean. 

The Scotch-Irish pressed on southward into North 
Carolina and South Carolina, and passed over the moun- 
tains into Eastern Tennessee and on up the western 
slope of the mountains into Eastern Kentucky. This 



(i8) 

Irish-Scotch strain has exercised a most important influ- 
ence on our development, and has produced some of the 
most progressive and most characteristic Americans in 
our history. The mountain population left by this emi- 
gration has remained little changed to the present time. 
Their descendants remained all through the war staunch 
friends of the Union, and to-day they present many 
unmistakable evidences of their ancestry. They came 
from the clans of old Scotland, and still preserve their 
clannish feelings. The blood feud of to-day has come 
down to them from the time when bloody claymores 
avenged a kinsman's death upon the Grampian Hills. 
The blood runs true, and it is this inheritance from their 
old Scotch ancestry that makes Breathitt County to-day 
so exciting, but a not altogether satisfactory place of 
residence. 

My story of the Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe 
and their discovery of their way through the mountains 
to the fair valley of the Shenandoah is now finished. 

And now some may ask, What has this old tale to 
do with the Mayflower, and why should a picnic party 
of convivial Colonial Virginians interest a Mayflower 
Society, who manifest such merited admiration of the 
stern virtues of their great ancestors? Well, at this 
very time Massachusetts had become a royal colony, 
and was ruled by a royal Governor with the veto power 
over her Assembly, just as Virginia was, and, as John 
Fiske has pointed out, from this time on the political 
problems of the former were assimilated to the latter, 
later to make the two the chief exponents and com- 
patriots in a glorious struggle. 

Further, while the descendants of the Pilgrims of 
this day were certainly a God-fearing people, they were 



(19) 

also a rum-making people, and the excellence of thei: 
brew and distillation is evidenced by the popularity oi 
Pilgrim Gin to-day. New England schooners seldom 
failed to bring a liberal supply of fragrant rum to Colo- 
nial Virginia, and so the descendants of the Pilgrims 
contributed in no small degree to establish that repu- 
tation for generous convivial hospitality for which Vir- 
ginia has been noted. Some of this rum doubtless 
found its way into the punch-bowl of the Knights of 
the Golden Horse Shoe, which was so often filled and 
emptied. 

And, furthermore, at this very period there was in 
active preparation that first important and successful 
secession movement in Boston, when part of the con- 
gregation, splitting off from the Old South Church, 
moved into the New South, in Sommers Street (171 7). 
This secession movement was not opposed and thwarted 
by any forceful coercion, but as the years went on and 
the old South beneath Mason and Dixon's line sough« 
to separate and set up a house of their own, the New 
England conscience impelled Puritan and Pilgrim alike 
to manifest their disapproval, and it must be confessed 
they brought to bear the most cogent arguments to 
sustain their views. 

And, finally, perhaps it may not be improper to 
remind you that not fifty years from the time of which 
we have written a young lad from one of the Tide-wate* 
counties of Virginia, one George Washington, who late 
became connected with the descendants of Governo- 
Spotswood by marriage, crossed these self-same moun 
tains, and began his work as surveyor at Greenwa 1 / 
Castle, the seat of Lord Fairfax, not many miles north 
of the spot from which Governor Spotswood first saw 



(20) 

the waters of the Shenandoah sparkling in the Septem- 
ber sun. His work led him westward through the 
unbroken forests until he came face to face with the 
very clanger that Spotswood had foreseen and predicted, 
tnd which he had proposed to forestall, namely, the 
irmed posts of the advancing French. The knowledge 
thus gained made him the leader of the Virginia forces 
md enabled him to save the wreck of Braddock's army. 
This success a little later made him Commander-in- 
Chief of the Revolutionary army, and two weeks after 
his appointment he stood beneath the historic elm at 
Cambridge, the leader of that motley crowd of half- 
armed men then besieging the British troops in Boston. 
With such ability and success did he press the siege 
that with his guns pointing from the top of Dorchester 
Heights he drove the foreign oppressor forever from 
the home of the Puritan and Pilgrim. 



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